The subject matter herein relates generally to receptacle connectors of electrical connector systems.
At least some known electrical connector systems include receptacle connectors, such as input/output (I/O) connectors, that are configured to receive a pluggable module, such as a transceiver module, paddle card, and the like, to establish a communicative connection between the pluggable module and the receptacle connector. As one example, a known electrical connector system includes a cage member surrounding a receptacle connector that is mounted to a circuit board and configured to receive a pluggable transceiver in an elongated cavity of the cage member. The pluggable transceiver including a circuit card and the receptacle connector have respective contacts that engage one another to establish a communicative connection.
Conventional receptacle connectors have housings with contact channels holding the contacts in a slot, such as in an upper row and a lower row. The housings are manufactured from dielectric material that affects the impendence of the receptacle connector, such as in the mating zone. For example, the dielectric material between the contacts lowers the impedance in the mating zone. The contacts typically have varying widths along their lengths, such as being narrower at the tips, leading to variations in the spacing between the contacts along the length. The varied spacing causes the impedance of the contacts to be lower where the contacts have greater spacing and higher where the contacts have narrower spacing. The contacts of the receptacle connector have mating beams including flared ends that are flared outward (away from the mating interface) to reduce the risk of mechanical stubbing and damaging of the contacts during mating with the circuit card. The flared ends extend forward of the mating interfaces, creating an electrical stub at the end of each contact.